These 10 top stories from Nigerian newspapers will interest you this Thursday morning, March 5, 2020

1. We will honour court order suspending Oshiomhole – APC

The Acting National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Victor Giadom, said on Wednesday the party would adhere to the court order which suspended the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. He told journalists at the party’s National Secretariat that the APC as a law-abiding political party had no other option than to comply with the court decision to suspend its chairman. Read more

2. APC National Vice-Chairman welcomes Oshiomhole’s suspension

National Vice Chairman (North-East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Mustapha, has backed the decision of a court to suspend his party’s chairman, Adams Oshiomhole. He told reporters that following the court injunction, Oshiomhole was in no position to issue any instruction as doing so would be “illegal, null and void”. Read more

The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed plans to involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in tracking relatives of former governors and senators. This was revealed in a statement on Wednesday by Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, who stated that former governors, including some who are now senators, transferred public funds abroad to purchase properties in the names of their relatives residing there. Read more

4. South-South Development Commission Bill passes first reading

A bill for the establishment of a development commission for the South-South region was on Wednesday passed for second reading at the House of Representatives. If eventually passed into law, the bill will see to a speedy development in the region especially, in the areas of rehabilitation of damaged infrastructures, among others. Read more

5. Emir Sanusi’s travails continue as Kano Assembly set to probe him for ‘unethical conduct’

The Kano State House of Assembly Wednesday set up an eight-man panel to investigate the allegation of “unethical conduct” brought against the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II. The panel is headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hamisu Chidare. Read more

6. Nigeria not ready to respond to coronavirus emergency – Senate President

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, Wednesday questioned the country’s readiness to check the spread of coronavirus. He expressed disappointment over the poor state of the coronavirus isolation centre at the University Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada. Lawan said this was in spite of the N620 million allocated for the set-up of isolation centres to be managed by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control. Read more

A young man leapt out of the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Nigeria Police Force in Gbagada, Lagos, as his mother hurtled towards him. Emaciated, and having his face twisted by glaring discomfort, he had just broken loose from what was the worst experience of his life, having spent weeks locked up in torrid conditions by the Gbagada police unit.

Few steps to the infamous blue gate of the detention centre, he stopped, took a handful of red sand in the premises, swerved it over his head three times; then, just as he finally stepped outside, he released the sand into the open air, letting it go back into the compound and dusted his hands clean. It was a symbolic gesture- as if to say “Never again!”, will I come here.

His experience offers a window into the encounters of several Nigerians, old and young, with the police institution that brazenly violates the country’s law through arbitrary arrests, illegal detention, torture, and commercialization of justice and bail.

A long-time investigation, including weeks of undercover reporting, revealed one of the police establishments notorious for human rights violations. The Anti-Cultism Unit at Gbagada, a suburb of Lagos State, is dreadful, but only to the innocent and those unable to pay for a wiped slate. The single bungalow building is notorious for torture, extortion and criminal detention of hapless Nigerians. Read more

8. Bayelsa Assembly approves Gov Diri’s N2.9bn vehicle loan request

The Bayelsa State House of Assembly has approved a loan request for N2.9 billion from Governor Douye Diri “to buy operational vehicles for the governor, deputy governor, and other top government functionaries.” The Assembly granted the loan request during a plenary on Tuesday following a motion moved by the Leader of the House, Monday Bubou-Obolo. Read more

Suspected herdsmen have killed three persons at Moon District, Kwande local government area of Benue State, police said on Wednesday. The spokesperson of the state police command, Ms. Catherine Anene, told journalists in Makurdi the gunmen carried out the attack on Tuesday. Read more

Media aide to Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka, has claimed that his detention by the police and arraignment for alleged fraud was the usual political persecution that can never get someone like him intimidated and silenced. He said it was funny that the same way he was persecuted, arrested, detained and tried for sedition in 2012, during the first tenure of Governor Kayode Fayemi was the way he was being persecuted now. Read more